A modeling platform for efficient characterization of phase-locked loop /spl Delta/-/spl Sigma/ frequency synthesizers

The aim of this paper is to determine the stability of higher-order /spl Delta/-/spl Sigma/ modulators using the describing function method. The maximum stable input limits for third-, fourth- and fifth-order Chebyshev Type II based /spl Delta/-/spl Sigma/ modulators are established. These results are useful for optimising the design of higher-order /spl Delta/-/spl Sigma/ modulators

On the occurrence of Radio Halos in galaxy clusters - Insight from a mass-selected sample

Giant radio halos (RH) are diffuse Mpc-scale synchrotron sources detected in a fraction of massive and merging galaxy clusters. An unbiased study of the statistical properties of RHs is crucial to constrain their origin and evolution. We aim at investigating the occurrence of RHs and its dependence on the cluster mass in a SZ-selected sample of galaxy clusters, which is as close as possible to be a mass-selected sample. Moreover, we analyse the connection between RHs and merging clusters. We select from the Planck SZ catalogue (Planck Collaboration XXIX 2014) clusters with $M\geq 6\times10^{14} M_\odot$ at z=0.08-0.33 and we search for the presence of RHs using the NVSS for z<0.2 and the GMRT RH survey (GRHS, Venturi et al. 2007, 2008) and its extension (EGRHS, Kale et al. 2013, 2015) for 0.2<z<0.33. We use archival Chandra X-ray data to derive information on the clusters dynamical status. We confirm that RH clusters are merging systems while the majority of clusters without RH are relaxed, thus supporting the idea that mergers play a fundamental role in the generation of RHs. We find evidence for an increase of the fraction of clusters with RHs with the cluster mass and this is in line with expectations derived on the basis of the turbulence re-acceleration scenario. Finally, we discuss the effect of the incompleteness of our sample on this result.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Chemical potential of oxygen for iron-rutile-ilmenite and iron-ilmenite-ulvospinel equilibria

The chemical potential of oxygen corresponding to the iron-rutile-ilmenite (IRI) and iron-ilmenite-ulvospinel (IIU) equilibria has been measured employing solid-state galvanic cells, Pt, Fe + TiO2 + FeTiO3//Fe+FeO, Pt and Pt, Fe + FeTiO3 + Fe2TiO4//(Y2O3) ZrO2//Fe+FeO, Pt in the temperature range of 875 to 1275 K and 900 to 1373 K, respectively. The cells are written such that the right-hand electrodes are positive. The electromotive force (emf) of both the cells was found to be reversible and to vary linearly with temperature over the entire range of measurement. The chemical potential of oxygen for IRI equilibrium is represented by &#916;&#956;O2(IRI) = -550,724 - 29.445T + 20.374T InT(&#177;210) J mol-1 (875 &#8804;T&#8804; 1184 K) = -620,260 + 369.593T - 27.716T lnT(&#177;210) J mol-1 (1184&#8804;T&#8804; 1275 K) and that for IIU equilibrium by &#916;&#181; o2(IIU) = -501,800 - 49.035T + 20.374T lnT(&#177;210) J mol-1 (900 &#8804;T&#8804; 1184 K) = -571,336 + 350.003T- 27.716T lnT(=-210) J mol-1 (1184 &#8804;T&#8804; 1373 K) The standard Gibbs energy changes for IRI and IIU equilibria have been deduced from the measured oxygen potentials. Since ilmenite contains small amounts of Ti3+ ions, a correction for the activity of FeTiO3 has been incorporated by assuming ideal mixing on each cation sublattice in the FeTiO3-Ti2O3 system. Similarly, the ulvospinel contains some Fe3+ ions and a correction for the activity of Fe2TiO4 has been included by modeling the Fe2TiO4-Fe3O4 system. The third-law analysis of the results obtained for IRI equilibrium gives &#916;H 298 0 = -575 (&#177;1.0) kJ mol-1 and for IIU equilibrium yields &#916;H 298 0 = -523.7 (&#177;0.7) kJ mol-1}. The present results suggest that Fe2+ and Ti4+ cations mix almost ideally on the octahedral site of spinel lattice in Fe2TiO4, giving rise to a configurational contribution of 2R In 2 (11.5256 J mol-1 K-1) to the entropy of Fe2TiO4

Thermodynamic stability of K β-alumina

The activity of K2O in a mixture of &#945;-alumina and K&#946;-alumina has been determined using the solid state galvanic cell: Ta, Bi-5 mol pct K // &#945;-alumina + K&#946;-alumina // In + In2O3, Ta in the temperature range 600 to 1000 K. The cell is written such that the right hand electrode is positive. The solid electrolyte consisted of a dispersion of &#945;-alumina (~15 vol pct) in a matrix of K&#946;-alumina. The emf of the cell was found to be reversible and to vary linearly with tem-perature. From the emf and auxiliary data on In2O3 and K2O from the literature, the activity of K2O in the two-phase mixture is obtained as log aK2O = 2.368 -20,850/T(K) (&#177;0.015) The standard free energy of formation of K&#946;-alumina from component oxides is given by K2O (s) + 9.5 &#946;-Al2O3 (s) &#916;K2O&#183;9.5A12O3 (s) &#916;G&#176; = -398,920 + 45.01 T(K) (&#177;1000) J mol-1

The Extended GMRT Radio Halo Survey I: New upper limits on radio halos and mini-halos

A fraction of galaxy clusters host diffuse radio sources called radio halos, radio relics and mini-halos. We present the sample and first results from the Extended GMRT Radio Halo Survey (EGRHS)- an extension of the GMRT Radio Halo Survey (GRHS, Venturi et al. 2007, 2008). It is a systematic radio survey of galaxy clusters selected from the REFLEX and eBCS X-ray catalogs . Analysis of GMRT data at 610/ 235/ 325 MHz on 12 galaxy clusters are presented. We report the detection of a newly discovered mini-halo in the cluster RXJ1532.9+3021 at 610 MHz. A small scale relic (~200 kpc) is suspected in the cluster Z348. We do not detect cluster-scale diffuse emission in 11 clusters. Robust upper limits on the detection of radio halo of size of 1 Mpc are determined. We also present upper limits on the detections of mini-halos in a sub-sample of cool-core clusters. The upper limits for radio halos and mini-halos are plotted in the radio power- X-ray luminosity plane and the correlations are discussed. Diffuse extended emission, not related to the target clusters, but detected as by-products in the sensitive images of two of the cluster fields (A689 and RXJ0439.0+0715) are reported. Based on the information about the presence of radio halos (or upper limits), available on 48 clusters out of the total sample of 67 clusters (EGRHS+GRHS), we find that ~23% of the clusters host radio halos. The radio halo fraction rises to ~31%, when only the clusters with X-ray luminosities >8x10^44 erg/s are considered. Mini-halos are found in ~50 % of cool-core clusters. A qualitative examination of the X-ray images of the clusters with no diffuse radio emission indicates that a majority of these clusters do not show extreme dynamical disturbances and supports the idea that mergers play an important role in the generation of radio halos/relics.Comment: 21 pages, 18 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in A&

New giant radio sources and underluminous radio halos in two galaxy clusters

The aim of this work is to analyse the radio properties of the massive and dynamical disturbed clusters Abell 1451 and Zwcl 0634.1+4750, especially focusing on the possible presence of diffuse emission. We present new GMRT 320 MHz and JVLA 1.5 GHz observations of these two clusters. We found that both Abell 1451 and Zwcl 0634.1+4750 host a radio halo with a typical spectrum ($\alpha\sim1-1.3$). Similarly to a few other cases reported in the recent literature, these radio halos are significantly fainter in radio luminosity with respect to the current radio power-mass correlations and they are smaller than classical giant radio halos. These underluminous sources might contribute to shed light on the complex mechanisms of formation and evolution of radio halos. Furthermore, we detected a candidate radio relic at large distance from the cluster center in Abell 1451 and a peculiar head tail radio galaxy in Zwcl 0634.1+4750, which might be interacting with a shock front.Comment: 15 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in A&